New York|Killer in Gang Gets 50 Years to Life, and a Dose of Mercy as Well

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Killer in Gang Gets 50 Years to Life, and a Dose of Mercy as Well

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Taylonn Murphy, whose sister was killed in the midst of a gang feud, was sentenced in a Manhattan court on Friday for fatally shooting a man who mocked her death in a rap video.CreditCreditBryan R. Smith for The New York Times

By Megan Jula

June 24, 2016

A deadly run of gang violence that has brought heartbreak to two Harlem families came to an unlikely culmination in a Manhattan courtroom.

Taylonn Murphy, a 20-year-old gang member, was given mercy, not by the judge, who sentenced him to 50 years to life for murder and other charges, but by the father of Walter Sumter, the young man Mr. Murphy had been convicted of killing.

“We also forgive you,” the father, also Walter Sumter, said, leaning on a cane, in a packed courtroom in State Supreme Court. “We realize that our family is not the only family suffering from this act of violence.”

It was a striking coda in a case that began with the killing of Mr. Murphy’s sister, a star high school basketball player whose death inspired their father to speak out against such violence in the city.

Feuds between Mr. Murphy’s gang, 3 Staccs, and the rival Money Avenue and Make it Happen Boys gangs led to the murder of his sister, Tayshana, 18, in September 2011 in a hallway in her building.

Mr. Murphy fatally shot the younger Mr. Sumter, 18, a rival gang member, outside a party on West 154th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in December that year. Mr. Sumter had mocked Ms. Murphy’s death and 3 Staccs in a rap video two weeks before he died.

Mr. Murphy responded to the video on Facebook message threatening him: “Dead on sight beef.” Even before Ms. Murphy’s death, her brother had threatened in posts on social media to kill Mr. Sumter, according to evidence presented during the trial.

Mr. Murphy was one of 103 young men from the Grant Houses and neighboring Manhattanville Houses indicted on conspiracy charges after a police raid in June 2014. The sweep was intended to dismantle the gangs in the two public housing projects.

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Betty and Walter Sumter, the parents of the man whom Mr. Murphy was convicted of killing, arriving at court.CreditBryan R. Smith for The New York Times

Mr. Murphy knew firsthand how violence could escalate from insults to murder, the lead prosecutor, Andrew Warshawer, said at the sentencing on Friday.

“Having seen his sister killed in exactly this pattern with an illegal firearm, he continued this pattern,” Mr. Warshawer said.

In handing down the sentence, the judge in the case, Justice Edward McLaughlin, excoriated the young man.

“You are imposing, inflicting and inducing those around you to follow in your footsteps which is the last thing society and these communities want to happen,” the judge said.

“You are not a victim,” he continued. “You are not a celebrity, and you are not a hero.”

Mr. Murphy has maintained his innocence, and he expressed his condolences to the Sumter family. “I may not know how it feels to lose a son, but I know how it feels to lose a sibling,” he said.

Mr. Murphy’s father, Taylonn Murphy Sr., who has become an activist against the allure of gangs, addressed a crowd of family and friends outside the court after the sentencing.

“What we are going through is horrible,” he said. “We lost Tayshana, and then it’s horrible what we are going through here.”

“Let’s keep supporting Bam; let’s keep the ‘free Bam’ campaign going,” he said, using his son’s nickname, short for the superstrong character in “The Flintstones.”

“And let’s start loving each other,” he continued. “Because a lot of this comes from us not loving each other.”

A version of this article appears in print on , Section A, Page 17 of the New York edition with the headline: Receiving Mercy, and a Long Prison Term, in a Murder. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe